At the kind invitation of the AbuSulayman College of Revealed Knowledge and Humanities at the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the Academy, participated in the international conference organized by the College titled Integrated knowledge on Thursday, 22 Dhu’ Qui’dah 1445, (30 May 2024) at the Gombak University College in Kuala Lumpur.

The conference began with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, followed by a welcoming speech delivered by His Excellency Prof. Dr. Shukran Abdul Rahman, Dean of the Abu Sulayman College at the University, in which he expressed the college’s sincere thanks to the participants in this conference that seeks to highlight the contributions of the late Islamic thinker Dr. Abdul Hamid bin Ahmad AbuSulayman in the field of integration between revealed knowledge and humanities on the one hand and values and applied sciences on the other, as he dedicated his life to promoting awareness of this great reformist project that he saw as the solution to the world’s problems.

His Excellency Prof. Tan Sri Zulkifli Abdul Razak, Rector of the International Islamic University, then delivered a speech in which he expressed the pride of the University in holding this conference and the importance of integration between Islamic sciences and human and social sciences, and between Islamic values and applied sciences, praising the excellence of the Islamic University in being one of the unique universities in the world that seeks to prepare a balanced generation of young people who combine commitment to values and ethics and mastery of the sciences and knowledge they specialize in to reflect the eternal message of Islam that calls for mercy, justice, equality, mastery and creativity.

H.E. Prof. Koutoub Moustapha Sano, Secretary General of the Academy delivered the conference’s keynote speech, which was entitled “The contributions of the late great Islamic thinker Dr. Abdul Hamid bin Ahmed AbuSulayman, may Allah have mercy on him, in the field of integration of sciences”. He began his speech by expressing his thanks and gratitude to the University and the deanship of the Abu Sulayman College for Revelaled Knowledge and Human Sciences for organizing this important international conference to highlight the blessed contributions made by the late thinker. May Allah have mercy on him.

His Excellency then gave a brief overview of his biography, noting that he was one of the great contemporary thinkers who left clear imprints on contemporary Islamic thought, as Allah helped him to establish a number of important contemporary intellectual institutions in the world, including the World Islamic Youth Forum in Saudi Arabia, the Society of Muslim Social Scientists in the United States of America, the International Institute of Islamic Thought in the United States of America, and the International Islamic University in Malaysia to become one of the world’s most prestigious universities as well as his great contributions to the development of the International Islamic University in Malaysia.

His Excellency then spoke about the most important points of his contributions in the field of integration between the knowledge of revelation and the human sciences, as he was concerned with providing an accurate diagnosis of the roots of the Ummah’s crisis, rejecting what many people think are the roots and causes of the crisis represented in the weakness of the Ummah’s faith and its lack of resources, because, in his opinion, the Ummah does not lack faith, nor does it lack resources faith, nor does it lack resources, but it lacks how to best deal with revelation as the supreme authority defining the values and goals that guide life and rationalize the mind. It also lies in the Ummah’s confusion between revelation and the knowledge derived from it, as it made that knowledge influenced by circumstances a revelation even though it is a changing human understanding, and this resulted in the nation’s people resorting to drawing solutions from traditional heritage The Ummah should have sought realistic solutions by forming understandings that take advantage of what the human and social sciences have achieved today in the field of interpreting phenomena and dealing with them in light of the Islamic values and principles.

Accordingly, he believed that the desired integration between the sciences is an integration between the knowledge derived from revelation and human and social sciences and not an integration between revelation and science because revelation includes values, fixed purposes, and universal principles, which are stable and do not change with the times, places, and situations. The knowledge derived from it is no different from human and social sciences in terms of change and influence. As for the desired integration in the field of applied sciences, he believed that this would be achieved through the Islamization of the aims and objectives that guide these sciences so that they would then become sciences that accomplish the good, righteousness, and happiness of humanity.

His Excellency called on the Ummah, after diagnosing the real crisis it is suffering from, to go beyond traditional and imported solutions to the crisis, which he considered an intellectual crisis, and instead, the desired solution to the crisis combines originality and modernity, through the project of integration between the knowledge of revelation, and the human and social sciences learned from studying phenomena and facts and drawing lessons and experiences from them, as the solution also lies in the basis for the integration of the two sciences.